Michael was telling me that Al Sharpton's speech last night at the DNC was great, so I read it online, which doesn't have the same effect without the rousing oratory, but still, it's really good.  My favorite part was when he was talking about the ever-changing justifications for the war in iraq and he said, " If I told you tonight, Let's leave the Fleet Center, we're in danger, and when you get outside, you ask me, Reverend Al, What is the danger? and I say, It don't matter. We just needed some fresh air, I have misled you and we were misled. "

There were multiple articles about the arena plan yesterday in the Bee, as usual.  I have really been mystified by the Bee's anti-arena stance.  The Bee seems sooo corporate and they have a really inappropriate relationship with their "partner" channel 10, and channel 10 is a whore for the kings, so given the coziness of this triad, I don't get it.  But I'm glad for it.  There was an article in the metro section about how the city will need funds from the county to float any plan, but the county is saying not so fast.  Sac county was thinking of implementing a rental car tax, and the city wants to use that for the arena.  Problem is, Sac county has a huge budget shortfall and was going to use that money to pay for, like, dumb stuff like cops and park services.   Then Graswich had the scoop that the Maloofs stormed out of the meeting because they wanted a Nov. 2 vote, but that Councilman Ray Tretheway was going to be the deciding vote to keep it off the ballot so soon (good job, Ray).   By the way, if you approve of Councilman Dave Jone's strong opposition to public funding, drop him a line at djones@cityofsacramento.org and tell him to keep up the good work.